* In 1853, Dalip Singh was converted to Christianity. A year later he and his cousin Prince Shiv Dev Singh, left for England. Dalip Singh was given an estate at Elvedon in Suffolk. He became a great favorite of Queen Victoria, who treated him as her grandson. Rani Jindan, who had escaped to Nepal, later joined him in England where she died in 1863, Dalip Singh brought his mother’s ashes to India. On his way back to England he married, in Alexandria, Bambar Shuller, the daughter of a German merchant. They had five children, two sons and three daughters. After the death of his wife, Dalip Singh remarried in June, 1807, Ada Douglas Wetherill. He died on Oct. 22, 1893 and was buried a week later at Elvedon.
******************************************************************* As soon as power passed out of Sikh hands, large number of Hindus who had adopted the practices of the Khalsa abandoned them to return to orthodox Hinduism. With them went a considerable number of those who had been Khalsa for several generations. In the two short visits that Lord Dalhousie made to the Punjab, he was able to detect this tendency. He noted the revival of caste system which Guru Gobind Singh had almost succeeded to abolish. He observed that with the disappearance of the Khalsa prestige, these votaries have fallen off; they joined in hundreds and have deserted in thousands. The ranks of Hinduism received them again and it was felt that their children will never drink the “pahul’” at Amritsar.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1987
